1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for applying a hair product to tresses. The invention is especially suitable for applying a tress coloring product.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exist several coloring products for the hair, i.e., those for temporary coloring, semipermanent coloring and permanent coloring, termed oxidation coloring. All these coloring products may take the form of a cream, a mousse, or a liquid with a higher or lower viscosity. The coloring products in the form of a liquid or gel can be used, optionally after mixing, from a "hot bottle" or from a bowl.
Typically, the colorations used from a bowl are intended either for overall use, termed "whole head" use, wherein the head of hair is entirely impregnated with the product with a view to modifying the color of the whole head, or a more partial use, termed "in tresses", where only certain portions of the head of hair are steeped with the product so as to obtain a nonhomogenous color effect once the treatment has been completed, thus emphasizing a given movement of the head of hair, with brighter or darker color nuances than the natural or overall shade of the head of hair; these are often referred to as "highlights" and "lowlights".
According to a first known technique for obtaining such an application in tresses, a "tress cap" is used which tightly covers the head of hair. The tresses to be colored are taken out of the cap through holes regularly distributed over the surface of the cap by means of a hook-type device. The application of the coloring product to the tresses thus extracted is done in the same way as that used for "whole head" coloring. The application of the product is generally undertaken by means of a brush. After the treatment has been completed, the tress cap is removed and the colored hair falls back into its natural position.
The tress cap technique is particularly tedious and has, moreover, three major drawbacks First, after the cap has been positioned, the hair is flattened and the tresses extracted through the openings are extracted at random, which may lead, in particular in terms of the distribution of the tresses, to a result which is substantially different from the result intended. Moreover, the size of the extracted tresses is proportional to the diameter of the openings of the cap. Since this diameter is generally small (typically of the order of 1 mm to 2 mm) the result is a poor juxtaposition of the tresses. Finally, due to the thickness of the cap and the thickness of the tresses, and the fact that the hairs extracted are not necessarily those whose implantation on the scalp are opposite the opening through which they are extracted, it has been found that the coloring product deposited by this technique does not go as far as the roots of the hair, which is detrimental to the natural aspect of the result.
To remedy these deficiencies, a certain number of application devices have been devised. In general, these application devices are based on either a comb or a brush, or a combination of the two. Such devices are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,146,936 and 4,691,720. Such devices suffer in general from the same drawbacks, linked in particular to the fact that they are used by acting on the head of hair from its outer side, that is to say at its top. The product is primarily deposited on the surface of the tress, and but little on the inside, the applicator being subsequently displaced relative to the tress from the root as far as the tip. Experience shows that the user tends to raise the applicator during this movement and to cause it to deviate from a path parallel to the curvature of the skull. Because of this movement, a certain number of the hairs are detached from the applicator, to fall back onto the head of hair. In the case of a coloring product, these hairs will therefore not be colored. The result obtained is therefore far from satisfactory.
Another type of tress-type applicator is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,893. With this type of applicator, the portion of the head of hair to be colored is introduced into a leakproof capsule containing the coloring product. The tress or tresses are kept in the capsule during the whole time necessary for the action of the coloring product. This type of applicator is well suited for applying the product requiring a certain setting time, but is not at all suitable for the coloring in tresses as set out above.
Tress coloring devices are also known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,030,968; 2,705,499 and 2,463,611. All these devices suffer from a major drawback linked to the complexity of their use. Indeed, with all these devices, it is necessary to take the tress up manually or with an appropriate auxiliary tool and to position it on the application element. Apart from the tedious nature of these operations, it is very difficult to apply the product starting at the root of the hair.